Rhizopus oryzae

    Technical Data

    Type of microorganism Fungus
    Microorganism name Rhizopus oryzae
    Temperature range 30-35° C (Mycorena AB, 2022)
    pH range pH 5-6 (Mycorena AB, 2022)
    Carbon and nitrogen source Sucrose, NH4+ (Mycorena AB, 2022)
    Growth  rate (µ) NA
    Companies (product) Mycorena (no product on the market that contains R. oryzae, but has filed a patent using R. oryzae)
    Wild-type or GMO Wild-type
    Feedstock case studies (suitable substrates)
    % SCP (w/w percentage of protein in dried biomass)
    cell  biomass dry weight (CDW) = biomass yield? (g/L or g/g?) (weight of biomass/total weight or volume)  20-30% (w/w) (Mycorena AB, 2022) on pilot scale on glucose or sucrose as C source
    Protein content in final product No prodcut on the market
    Protein titer (g/L or g/g?) grams of protein / total weight or volume 12-18% (w/w) (own calculations based on Mycorena AB (2022)) on pilot scale on glucose or sucrose as C source
    Productivity (g/Lh)  0.134 (Mycorena AB, 2022) on pilot scale
    Protein yield on C-source (% w/w) 8% (w/w) on glucose medium on lab scale in flask (Karimi et al., 2021) *
    Scale Pilot scale (300 L) (Mycorena AB, 2022)
    Downstream purification processing complexity   No info about downstream proces, most likely similar processing as other fungi products.
    Nucleic acid content Not specifially stated, but likely around 10% as most fungi
    Techno-functional and/or nutritional properties (e.g. meat-like texture, amino acid profile, digestibility) High protein content (all amino acids), meat-like texture (Mycorena AB, 2022)
    Target application (Food, feed, other)
    Advantages Test products made from R.oryzae had a more appealing look as compared to existing meat alternatives (Mycorena AB, 2022)
    Challenges (Key limitations, risk factors) Only recently explored for use in feed and food. No product on the market yet. Not approved by any country. Risk factors not investigated yet.
    Regulatory status in Europe R. oryzae for use in classical fermented does not fall under the Novel Food regulation and is thus allowed. The use of R. oryzae in biomass fermentation is considered as Novel Food and needs to be authorized before use (no such case yet, since there is no product).
    Regulatory status in other parts of the world Not approved as a biomass fermentation product in US, Canada or Singapore
    Extra/remark R. oryzae is generally used to produce fermentation products in Asian cultures such as tempeh, oncom and Makgeolli (Martín-Miguélez et al., 2025)
    Publications/references